Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When a town or landscape map, or even an advertising structure, is erected, if the planning authority has been granted a licence for its erection, then, obviously, somebody has decided that the structure is in the common good. We are trying to ensure that that common good also includes the need for those advertisements to appear on such a structure as Gaeilge and as Béarla. In the case of town and landscape maps, it is quite a simple proposition in that they are usually in situ and are visible. They do not move, and the Irish placenames can be put on them. Also, if there are any speakers on them, you can press a button, A or B, to hear information in the Irish language or in English. It becomes a bit more complicated when you are dealing with advertising structures, especially rotating ones, but it can be a condition, because permission is sought on any such advertising structure, that you ensure that the advertisements are 50% in Irish or that there is duplication, whereby one is in English and is then repeated in Irish straight away or within that series of rotating ads.

As we know from the Official Languages Act, there was a recognition that advertising has an effect. Most people will have noticed and have spoken to me in the past while about the amount of Irish being used on radio and television because it is subliminal in some ways. They are hearing ads as Gaeilge, which they never heard before. This is because the new legislation stipulates that 5% of the advertising budget of State companies must be spent on the Irish language. That is the law so it is having an effect. Here we have an opportunity to influence the private sector because it is seeking a licence to do this. Most of the town maps are usually erected by councils or a Tidy Town body so, in general, they could be more easily maintained. The ask here is probably set higher but is in line with what we debated when we debated the Official Languages Act. This is a way of giving effect to that type of thinking in our planning legislation.